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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29216070">what we feel started way before we ever touched.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid'>LLReid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bloodbound (Visual Novels)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ADHD, Canon LGBTQ Character, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Gummy bear addict Kamilah, I enjoyed this prompt A LOT, Interviews, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Romantic Soulmates, Same-Sex Marriage, Sugar High - Freeform, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Vampires, vogue magazine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:00:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,877</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29216070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by; Strangers by Jonas Brothers.</p><p>~~~~</p><p>“Kami—,” Anastasia chuckled as she wandered into the living room of the penthouse, stopping in her tracks at the sight of Kamilah sat on the floor by the coffee table surrounded by gummy bears. “I’ve walked in on you masturbating before and have had full conversations with you in a bathroom stall whilst you’re peeing and somehow I’ve never felt this awkward.”</p><p>Kamilah huffed indignantly and stuck both of her middle fingers up as she tried to swallow the twenty gummy bears she’d somehow managed to fit in her mouth at once. Since Anastasia’s Vogue article had been published her mortal fans had been sending bags upon bags of gummy bears to Ahmanet Financial — so much so that Anastasia had posted on social media begging them to cease sending the candy.</p><p>It had been three days since she’d consumed anything else and it was like all her Dark Solstices arriving at once.</p><p>These mortal snacks were a wonder of modern day kitchen wizardry as far as she was concerned.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kamilah Sayeed/Anastasia Sayeed, Kamilah Sayeed/Main Character (Bloodbound)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what we feel started way before we ever touched.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>PROMPT: I was hoping you would write a lil something where kami and Annie do a couples Q &amp; A for vogue or something and it just being funny bc they learn a lot of embarrassing stuff concerning kami and that she adores gummy bears and then a couple days after the videos was posted Annie and kami just keep getting gummy bears delivered to their penthouse 😭😂and Annie not liking it bc it’s a lot of gummy bears😭( but kamilah of course doesn’t mind all the gummy bears being delivered to their penthouse and takes it as a person challenge to eat every last gummy bear)😂</p><p>AUTHOR’S NOTE: I read a lot of these Q&amp;A things in Vogue and decided to format this so that the first section is based on what an actual Q&amp;A in the magazine would be like. It’s new for me, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b> Exclusive: Kamilah Sayeed Interviews Wife, Vogue Cover Star, and unofficial queen of vampires: ANASTASIA SAYEED. </b>
</p><p>
  <i> <b>ANASTASIA SAYEED:</b> Bloodkeeper, leader of vampire society, world hero, pop cultural phenomenon, Raines Corp CEO, scientist, five time Nobel Prize recipient, change agent, humanitarian, and devoted wife to Kamilah Sayeed. </i>
</p><p>The famous couple married in a private ceremony fifty years ago, with a night blooming garden and a seventeenth century French château reconstructed in the sprawling Upstate New York countryside as the backdrop. Having met just over a year earlier, the union would serve, among other things, as the beginning of a long awaited shift in both mortal and vampire societies across the globe, and the unfolding of a prophecy made by Kano Yoshimasa.</p><p>It’s just before Christmas — or the vampiric Dark Solstice — and elegantly decorated trees festoon the lobby of the iconic and Fort Knox-like Ahmanet Financial skyscraper in Manhattan where for years the Sayeeds have lived when they are in New York. Anastasia wants me to know that I am catching her at an especially hectic moment, and she is nervous. It’s been more than a year since she’s agreed to sit for a lengthy interview or made an official appearance on any magazine cover.</p><p>At the time of this feature she was in the middle of what many people have been calling a golden age of her career— a period in which she seems to be continuing her astounding dominance within the scientific community, asserting she has put her now famously brave actions in various battles behind her and is focusing on healing.</p><p>“It’s nerve wracking— interviews like this,” she tells me as we wander towards a private elevator tucked at the back of the crowded lobby, wandering past hoards of intimidating Clan Sayeed enforcers whose job it is to guard the building. They smile at Anastasia with nothing but respect in their eyes and eye me, a mere mortal journalist, suspiciously. “It’s a lot of pressure and they always bring a lot of attention. That’s why Kami rarely agrees to things like this, she loathes world of celebrity.”</p><p>To call Kamilah Sayeed an enigma would be to underestimate the ancient vampire — who is considered to be the oldest living person in the world — and her introverted nature. She routinely refuses to appear in magazines, regardless of how high the financial offer she is presented, and makes it clear to me when I arrive in their sleekly decorated penthouse that she is only participating in this feature because Anastasia — or “Annie” as she affectionately calls her wife — has asked her to. “I was born a public figure in Egypt,” she says simply, when I ask her why she keeps herself so private, “and for most of my life privacy was a luxury and not a right. Now that I have the choice to live in peace and relative obscurity, I intend to do so.”</p><p>She doesn’t elaborate when I ask her to and defers to Anastasia, reminding me on no uncertain terms that this is her wife’s feature and she is simply participating because her “Annie” asked that she did. As closed off as Kamilah seems in my presence, her and Anastasia’s bond is impossible not to notice. Her expression softens considerably when she looks at The Blookeeper, and the aloof air about her disappears.</p><p>“When you live as long as Kamilah has,” friend Serafine Dupont told me earlier that day, “opening up to people is not as easy as it may seem to you mortals. Her heart is golden but along the way she has suffered and as a result she has crafted walls that are impossible for most people to climb. We’ve been friends for over six hundred years and I’ve never seen her let anyone in the way she has let Anastasia in.”</p><p>“So Anastasia has been good for her?,” I asked as we watched The Bloodkeeper posing for her cover shoot and saw Kamilah watching on from across the room with a proud smile and a hand on the hilt her dagger — ready to protect her wife at the slightest sign of trouble.</p><p>“Anastasia is her saving grace,” Adrian Raines replied without elaborating.</p><p>“One thing you gotta know about Kamilah— probably the only thing you really gotta know about her, actually,” Lily Spencer then added, “is that she’ll be perfectly civil until the minute she thinks you’re a threat to Anastasia. If you say a bad word about her, or if you seem like you wanna hurt her in anyway, or you upset her— she’s very, very protective and she just will not stand for any disrespect of her wifey. It’s a one way ticket to getting yourself stabbed.”</p><p>“What does Anastasia think of that?,” I asked her. “You’re her best friend, you must know.”</p><p>“She understand why Kamilah is the way she is,” Lily shrugged. “She understands her better than anyone else and knows why she sometimes goes over the top trying to keep her safe— it goes deeper than most people realise. But the thing about their relationship is that Anastasia mellows her out and if she tells her she’s taking it too far, Kamilah’s gonna listen and make an immediate adjustment.”</p><p>“When you’ve gone through as much as our Kamilah has and have witnessed as many tragedies as she has in her more than two thousand years of life, your desire to protect the one you love most tends to be a bit more extreme than most people’s,” Serafine clarified. “It took finding Anastasia to make her a wife, after all, and that should tell you all that you need to know about the strength of their love.”</p><p>“She’s really a teddy bear when you get to know her,” Anastasia chuckles as the couple sit down side by side on their living room sofa in the expensive professional outfits that represent their timeless style. </p><p>“To you,” Kamilah corrects her with an affectionate smile. “I’m a teddy bear to you.”</p><p>“Yes, sweetheart, you’re terrifying to everyone else,” says Anastasia with a laugh.</p><p>It’s hard not to marvel at the couple in such a relaxed environment after seeing them gracing red carpets and award shows together for decades. The configuration in which they sit on the couch shifts according to Anastasia’s restless manoeuvrings and almost immediately the self deprecating ADHD jokes begin to fly: No sooner has she settled in than she bounces her leg restlessly; she runs her hands through her hair and along a cosy blanket draped over the back of the couch, squeezes between Kamilah and the bolster and enfolds her in her arms; she lays her body down and puts her head in her lap as we talk, all whilst Kamilah monitors the situation.</p><p>It’s only when she begins losing track of the conversation that Kamilah digs a 1000 year old Persian dagger with a blade made of a sharpened diamond out of her blazer and tells her to spin it around her fingers. They then tell me that on days where so many things happen, Anastasia’s concentration noticeably suffers.</p><p>The dagger seems to do the trick and the Bloodkeeper is quickly able to regain her focus.</p><p>Anastasia’s followers across social media number more than 370 million, has found her family with vampires born across the ages, namely; Serafine Dupont (born in 1301 in Albania), Adrian Raines (born in 1753 in Albany, NY), and Lily Spencer (born in 1994 in Kansas City, MO). Since marrying Sayeed (who refuses multiple times to list her exact date of birth but is an Egyptian princess of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, close cousin of Cleopatra, and thought to be more than 2100 years old) and taking over Raines Corp as Raines’ successor, she’s; masterminded numerous scientific breakthroughs in the treatment of malignant diseases, degenerative neurological conditions, and vaccines, created solar powered smartphones and computer systems — that quickly dethroned Apple’s reign over the market — and smart cars that were heavily inspired by Nikola Tesla’s research into free energy that have become commonplace on roads all over the world (which made more than US $3.5 billion last year alone), and expanded Raines Corps’ area of expertise in co-operation with NASA, Roscosmos State Corporation, and The European Space Agency to include the development of numerous space exploration and satellite technologies and improvements to the International Space Station.</p><p>According to an extraordinarily proud looking Kamilah, her wife’s next moves, though, don’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows her or has been closely following her career. She keeps between an estimated 5-10% of her annual earnings every year, funnelling the rest of it into further scientific research, charitable donations, and humanitarian projects. Regularly she lends her voice and her wallet to numerous LGBTQ+ organisations, Planned Parenthood, Global Footprint Network, The HALO Trust, and The Dara Foundation in her native Kazakhstan that aims to improve the lives of disabled children.</p><p>Whilst little is known about Kamilah, it is public knowledge that she is a Nobel Prize for Economics winner who received the prize for her contributions to the theory of international trade, and has achieved her much-desired financial triumph by being the most highly sought after investment and management financiers in the world, through her company: Ahmanet Financial. In this candid interview, Anastasia opens up to her wife about everything we have always wanted to know: misconceptions, celebrity, work, and style.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Annie, could even the most incompetent mortals not freely Google this information? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I mean, probably, but it’s Vogue. Just ask the questions and I’ll give you a gummy bear for every time you manage not to roll your eyes or make a sarcastic comment.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: The audacity— </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You have no business saying that to me when you literally shoved five packets of alcoholic gummy bears into my purse this morning before you watched me do my cover shoot because you predicted these questions would try your patience. I was a walking Dylan’s Candy Bar all day at work.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Kamilah’s Candy Bar, more like. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Oh my god.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Me getting hangry will be good for no one and alcohol improves my mood considerably during tasks like this one— anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. The first question is: What do you believe to be the biggest misconception people have about you? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You mean besides the fact that most people think their thoughts are interesting enough for me to want to read their minds when I walk past them on the street? Uh, I mean, I’m honestly not sure what the biggest one would be because people assume things about my abilities all the time. It bothered me more when I was younger.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Indeed. It bothered you quite a bit and more than a few fools almost met my blades for souring your mood. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Protective Kami for the win— but I think I’ve evolved as I’ve aged and have arrived at a place where I don’t care about misconceptions. People can think what they want and it doesn’t effect me either way. As long as my family and friends know exactly who I am and what I stand for, I really couldn’t care less about anyone else. I learned how freeing the act of simply not giving a shit is from you.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: You’ve definitely come into your own. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You think?</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: You went through so many major life changes in your early twenties all at the one time with almost no respite in between. From being introduced to the vampire world, to losing your mortal life saving the world from Gaius, to having to save the world from Rheya mere weeks after your Turning, to having Jax die in your arms, to then taking over Raines Corp whilst simultaneously trying to lead our society and foster relationships with the mortals— it was a lot of trauma to go through at once and much too much responsibility for most people to handle. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I was kind of a broken person for a while, wasn’t I?</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Understandably so, but your determination to recover from all you went through was inspiring. Once you hit thirty and had truly settled into your role you definitely blossomed. It was a beautiful thing to watch. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Well without you I probably wouldn’t even have made it out of my twenties at all. So you’ve got a lot to do with that.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I love you. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I love you, too, sweetheart.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Alright... next question: If you could choose not to be a world leader and have a more peaceful but happy life out of the spotlight, would you do it? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: The freedom to choose has never really been a thing for me in the same way it is for other people. My power and my role in society was prophesied, bound to my blood since I was born— so I try not to think too much about what I would want to be different if I had that choice. What would be the point?</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: People often fail to understand how impossible your position as The Bloodkeeper is. You’re not just dealing with your own trauma and the weight of your own emotions... you have thousands of people’s memories whirling around inside your head at all times. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: And it’s exhausting— I think sometimes on my bad days I probably do wish I hadn’t been dealt this hand. That I could just be a normal vampire and go about my business without having to worry about how my every breath and heartbeat are essentially matters of political significance within the vampire world. Or having other people’s traumatic memories pop into my head at less than opportune moments, because then I wind up dealing with a weird sort of second-hand PTSD that I can never really explain properly. It is a lot of pressure and it never stops, I never get a break from it and my head is a very loud place to be— but I’m very privileged to be in the position that I’m in and I enjoy being able to help people and do good... to have what I say and do mean something... so I suppose that’s all I can ask for.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: You cope with it all marvellously— I’d have driven my blades into somebody’s eyes long before now. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Thank you, dork. It means a lot to hear you say that when you’ve literally seen me through an uncountable number of mental breakdowns— here, have a gummy bear for that answer.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah (through muffled chewing): Some people say fame is addictive. What is your opinion on that? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I can definitely see how that would be the case for some people, especially people like me who didn’t have a lot of validation or security growing up. When you’re famous for whatever reason and you constantly have people singing your praises, especially if you’ve never had that before, it can be quite an... experience. </p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: How so? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Well you’re surrounded by ‘yes people’. People whose entire job it is to keep you happy and comfortable. If you’ve had to fight for everything or to even be heard all your life before that, to suddenly be surrounded by these people and fans who constantly talk about how much they love you and how brilliant you are— it’s almost like you want to make up for lost time by soaking up as much of that as you can. I’m lucky that by the time I became a public figure I had you and the family, and I’d begun healing from my childhood, so I’ve never really lost sight of what’s important— but if it was just me on my own with this amount of fame... I mean, there’s no telling who I’d be now.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: We are constantly in the news and sometimes we end up reading the most ridiculous things about ourselves— would I be in trouble if I just called out The Daily Mail right now for their laughable attempts at journalism? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Absolutely not. If I have to see one more paparazzi photo of us getting our morning coffee I might just be the one doing the stabbing— Have another gummy bear, babe.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah (through even more muffled chewing): Do these tabloid stories affect you? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: When I was younger they definitely irritated me more. Like I said earlier, you trained me well in the art of not giving a shit.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: What did you think of me when we first me? Wow... what a question. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You already know the answer to this one.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I know your answers to all of these questions— but for the benefit of mortals everywhere, feel free to describe your gay meltdown in full detail. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: If I’d to do that this interview would very quickly turn into a different sort of piece— it’d be like one of Lily’s fanfics!</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: What a travesty that would be. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Anyway, the first time I saw you I obviously went into full blown Gay Panic Mode. I was a twenty-two year old kid and you were — are — literally the most beautiful person I’ve ever met so it was... a whole thing. You were so dark and mysterious then... and my crush on you only got worse because we kind of hated each other at first.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I hated everyone. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You still hate everyone.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I like precisely four people and find one more slightly more tolerable than the others. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Am I the one that’s slightly more tolerable than the others? Please say I’m that one.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: No, that’s Mathew— sometimes it’s Lily. It depends on the day, really. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: You’re so antisocial but it works for you in this really awesome way. It’s amazing.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I’m not antisocial, I’m simply honest. Does anyone truly like more than a select few people? Anyway, I was a cold bitch when we met and you gave me as good you got. It was... an aphrodisiac. You may have been the first person in centuries to yell at me during the argument we had on the night of Lily’s Turning. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I mean the sexual tension was definitely on another level. And then you called me a mewling mortal—</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Will I ever live that down? We have been married for fifty years, together for over fifty-one, I obviously like you now! </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: But do you like me? Or do you LIKE me like me? I’m gay. You need to be specific about these things.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Annie, I do not care a bit that this interview is for Vogue, I will not hesitate to start throwing the pillows on the couch at you in front of this mortal if you try to draw me into this discussion once again. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: So you LIKE me like me. That’s all you had to say, honey.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: You are infuriating. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: It’s a gift.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: It’s something, alright— How did you realise I was the one for you? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: It was actually when I was still mortal and I wound up getting appendicitis. We’d only been dating a few weeks and you were on a business trip to London so Lily took me to the hospital and they diagnosed me pretty quickly and I was in the operating room only hours after arriving at the ER. It turns out my appendix had burst the day before and I wound up being really septic by the time they actually cut me open, and it was bad enough that I was kept sedated in the ICU for days.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: That was one of the most horrific things I’ve ever witnessed. I thought I was going to lose you. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: When I woke up you were at my side, and you were holding my hand but you had fallen asleep. The nurse told me that Lily had called you and you’d flown home whilst I was in surgery, and you hadn’t left my side in more than four days. She told me you were being really protective and asking a thousand questions about everything they were pushing through my IV— which, I mean, is pretty on brand. </p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I was simply ensuring the mortals were competent. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: The pain medication I was on was pretty amazing but I remember being so touched that you cared that much— I’d never had anyone care about me like that before... and even once I was on the mend you didn’t leave my side at all and you made me feel beautiful with the scars on my stomach. I think that was when I knew for certain. I just felt so safe and cared for knowing that you were there.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: When Lily called me to say that you were in surgery I walked out of a meeting without a word to anyone— the idea that anything bad could happen to you scared me more than anything even then. I want you around for a long time. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Don’t worry. I will be.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I know, my love, I know. The next question is: What are some things you’ve had to sacrifice to become as successful as you are? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I get asked this one a lot, too, and it’s another one I never know quite how to answer. People assume that because I became successful in my twenties that I must’ve sacrificed a lot... but the thing they don’t take into account is how my early life experiences made me mature a lot faster than the average person. I was raised by alcoholics, so I’ve always been very independent and from the age of ten I’ve been living in foreign countries alone, having to learn to speak new languages and navigate new cultures; first at my English boarding school and then when I moved to New York at seventeen for college. So I’ve never been the young and care-free person that people like to think— so I don’t think I’ve necessarily sacrificed that much because things have just sort of happened naturally, you know? </p><p><b> Kamilah: I disagree. Whilst you’ve always been very mature and goal-oriented, the option for you to go off the rails has always been there and you’ve resisted it. Whilst you can certainly have fun and do have fun, you do it in moderation. You work tirelessly and ignore all distractions as best you can despite the times that it’s difficult for you to concentrate... and you’ve never given yourself any credit for that. </b> </p><p>Anastasia: You’re making me blush.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: It’s what I do best— I feel like I deserve a gummy bear for that. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Yeah, I think so, too.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah (through even more muffled chewing): The world is always awed by your business ventures and scientific discoveries. Where do you get your inspiration from? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Honestly? I simply just look at things and see what needs to be done, but for some reason isn’t being done or isn’t being done as well as it could be — and I don’t let anyone tell me what I can and can’t do. Whether it’s the ridiculous bureaucracy behind certain things or pseudoscientific theories that have long been accepted as science fact... I simply don’t allow myself to be limited by anyone or anything but my own imagination. If I believe in something, I prove it, or I create it... I don’t wait around for someone else to do it for me... and that’s all there is to it, really.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: You make it sound so simple. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: It kind of is to me, though. I tend hyperfocus on my work because I enjoy it so much so it becomes kind of all I see when I’m in that zone and I can think outside of the box pretty easily. I just can’t get my head around any other way of thinking about things.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Why do you work so hard? What drives you? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: The desire to prove to myself that I’m not the girl that everyone said would amount to nothing. People underestimated me a lot when I was young because concentrating on things I’m not interested in or sitting still in school for long stretches of time was difficult for me— they thought that not being able to memorise the things they taught me made me stupid and refused to recognise my other strengths because they couldn’t mould me into what they wanted me to be. I guess I still feel like I’m proving them all wrong.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Well, you’ve certainly done that, my love— Many young girls see you as a role model due to your achievements, your intelligence, and your sense of style. Do you feel any sort of pressure to be a good role model? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: No. I understand that people look up to me and it is an honour to be thought of in that way, but at the end of the day, I didn’t sign up to be a role model or a celebrity and am not going to change anything about myself if people don’t like it or whatever else. I’m just being me— that’s the only thing I know how to be.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Your outfits have been copied by women and girls all over the world. Whether it’s your casual style caught by the paparazzi or designer looks on red carpets, you’re always on the best dressed lists. How would you describe your fashion sense? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I’m a proud Kazakhstani woman and we like to look good, it’s a cultural thing in a lot of Eastern countries that here in the west certain feminists turn their nose up at. I think what I wear is normally simple and elegant. I wear a lot of muted tones; whites, blacks, creams, shades of grey, or sometimes dark jewel tones. My hair and eyes are so bright that I like to have them be the centre pieces of everything I wear— my hair also clashes with a lot. I don’t necessarily follow trends or anything, I just do my own thing and people seem to like it— so it’s not really something I think about to be honest.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Was it weird seeing yourself portrayed in Lily’s Bloodbound movie series? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: I think it was weird for all of us. Like, it’s weird to see someone pretending to be you and acting out things that you’ve actually lived through... right?</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: Indeed— I did not appreciate the amount of times my character stabbed our enemies. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: ...</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I know I am a fairly stabby individual but I don’t actually stab people that much. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Okay.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I don’t! </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Mhm.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah: I’m serious. </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: Have a gummy bear.</p><p>
  <b> Kamilah (through even more chewing mixed with irritated grumbling and Anastasia’s laughter): It’s a bit of a cliché, but where do you see yourself in a century? </b>
</p><p>Anastasia: So long as I’m still as happy and fulfilled as I am now, I really don’t care about anything else. If I have you and our family... everything else is secondary.</p><p>
  <i> Kamilah has told us to state on no uncertain terms that she did not write the questions presented to Anastasia in this article. </i>
</p><p> </p><p>~~~~ Three days after the article’s release ~~~~</p><p> </p><p>“Kami—,” Anastasia chuckled as she wandered into the living room of the penthouse, stopping in her tracks at the sight of Kamilah sat on the floor by the coffee table surrounded by gummy bears. “I’ve walked in on you masturbating before and have had full conversations with you in a bathroom stall whilst you’re peeing and somehow I’ve never felt this awkward.”</p><p>Kamilah huffed indignantly and stuck both of her middle fingers up as she tried to swallow the twenty gummy bears she’d somehow managed to fit in her mouth at once. Since Anastasia’s Vogue article had been published her mortal fans had been sending bags upon bags of gummy bears to Ahmanet Financial — so much so that Anastasia had posted on social media begging them to cease sending the candy.</p><p>It had been three days since she’d consumed anything else and it was like all her Dark Solstices arriving at once.</p><p>These mortal snacks were a wonder of modern day kitchen wizardry as far as she was concerned.</p><p>“Have you tried these ones?!,” she shrieked the moment she could talk, holding up a bag of sour lemon gummy bears that were coated in a thick layer of sugar that made the tongue tingle. “These ones are my favourite. You must try one!”</p><p>“Babe,” Anastasia chuckled as she knelt down beside her, only to have a sour lemon gummy bear shoved in her mouth before she continue. “Oh my god,” she cringed, her face contorting as the sour taste really hit her. “Wow.”</p><p>“They are a marvel!”</p><p>“You do realise you’re literally high on sugar right now? You’re fucking high!,” The Bloodkeeper said, stealing the mug of green tea she’d been drinking to cleanse her mouth of the sour taste. “You’re literally shaking— I think maybe you should take a break.”</p><p>“But there are so many!,” she beamed, digging into a bag of sour green apple ones made by the same brand. The moment it touched her tongue she groaned in delight and shoved one in Anastasia’s mouth before she could protest. “How do you expect me to stop when there are so many gummy bears to try— do you know how good these taste? Do you?!”</p><p>“Kami,” Anastasia said, stilling her hands before she could tear into the sour watermelon flavour of the same variety. “Nobody is going to touch your gummy bears but your sugar crash is already going to be insane— you’re legit going to be in a bad mood for a week coming down from this. Please don’t make yourself sicker than you’re already going to be.”</p><p>She pouted. “When can I eat more?”</p><p>“Once you’re through the sugar withdrawals your inevitably going to have— babe, I know you love these candies but we really have to work on getting you to moderate how many of them you eat.” Anastasia spoke to her gently and pressed a kiss to her brow. “Too much of the one thing isn’t good for you— not even our kind are immune to sugar hangovers and the stomach cramps too much candy will cause.”</p><p>“That’s what the green tea is for,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s soothes the stomach.”</p><p>Anastasia blinked at her and let out a soft sigh. “Kami.”</p><p>“What?,” she chuckled. “It does!”</p><p>“You are such a dork.”</p><p>“But it does!”</p><p>“So rather than stop eating the gummy bears when your stomach started to hurt, you decided to make a mug of green tea so you could keep eating them through the pain—“</p><p>“I considered trying the marijuana infused ones someone sent because I am nothing if not determined but I thought we should probably eat those ones together and— ow.... my stomach is cramping again. I may need more green tea.”</p><p>Anastasia started laughing. “Did you just ask me to get high on edibles with you?”</p><p>“I mean... possibly? I don’t even know because these all taste marvellous.”</p><p>Anastasia helped her up and lay her down on the couch, tucking her up beneath the fuzzy blanket draped over the back. “You need to take it easy or you will literally end up shitting your pants— a lot of the chemicals in those things act as laxatives when consumed in large amounts.”</p><p>“That would be unfortunate.”</p><p>Anastasia snorted. “You think?”</p><p>They shared a laugh and Kamilah puckered her lips and then her mouth was on hers and they were kissing hard and deep and wet. She pulled Anastasia down over her and they somehow wound up moaning softly and rubbing and tugging and grinding. Her heart crashed in her chest and her pulse roared in her ears and her breathing came in shallow gasps and her breasts were squashed against Anastasia’s chest— in her sugar induced daze it was almost too much to bear.</p><p>She’d never dreamed anybody could love her the way Anastasia did. And even when she proved it to her time and again — she still could hardly believe it was true.</p><p>“I don’t care how many times you kiss me like that,” Anastasia whispered against her lips, “you’re still not eating anymore gummy bears.”</p><p>She sighed. “Unbelievable. Un-bloody-believable.”</p><p>“You may need a twelve step program to get over your addiction. Should I start researching for you?”</p><p>“Like AA but for gummy bear addicts?” She started laughing so much that it made her stomach hurt more. “Where I would sit in a circle of mortals and stand up and say: My name is Kamilah and I am a gummy bear addict?”</p><p>Anastasia nodded, smirking at her all the while. “I’m sure that’s a thing somewhere— if there was once a whole TV show about people who married inanimate objects there has to be a gummy bear addict support group somewhere. I mean, this is America.”</p><p>“I would sooner fall on my own blades than give up my gummy bears,” she pouted playfully. “They are the one candy mortals have created that I consider an enjoyable dining experience. I will never, ever stop eating them.”</p><p>“Maybe just throw a piece of fruit or a vegetable in the mix every so often for my sanity’s sake, mm?”</p><p>“I will if you allow me to hang your Vogue cover in my office.”</p><p>“So you have one more picture of me to get yourself off to during the day?,” Anastasia teased, nipping at her earlobe.</p><p>“Precisely,” she said without a moments hesitation. </p><p>Their copy of the magazine was rested on the coffee table amongst all the open bags of gummy bears littered across the polished marble surface. The image of Anastasia sat by the bar in The Gold Room at The Lotte New York Palace Hotel wearing a black gown with an elegant thigh slit was almost too much for one woman to bear.</p><p>Those burning crimson eyes.</p><p>The dark lips.</p><p>That hair.</p><p>Her body.</p><p>She was much too gay for this woman for her own good.</p><p>She couldn’t lookaway from the feral lust on her face in the photo — the sleek lines and gentle curves of her body concealed beneath black iridescent velvet, the sharpness of her jaw, the slight baring of her fangs. Just one look at it fed the heat constantly building in her thighs and buttocks and belly. It stoked the fever raging out of control between her legs.</p><p>She’d never been so bloody turned on by a picture in her life.</p><p>“You pervert,” laughed Anastasia.</p><p>“Well thank god you’re into me being completely unapologetic about my perverted desires.” She sighed wistfully. “I don’t know what I’d do if you were a timid little thing who was ashamed of such things.”</p><p>Anastasia shook her head in utter bemusement. “You’re ridiculous.”</p><p>“I know,” she muttered below her breath, smirking wickedly the whole time. “But don’t you love that I’m thinking of you when the mood strikes me and you happen to be unavailable?”</p><p>Anastasia nipped at her bottom lip and then soothed the sting with her tongue. “Of course— but you’re still not having anymore gummy bears.”</p><p>She heaved a sigh and muttered, “God damn it.”</p><p> </p><p>~ fin.</p>
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